Andrew Velnoskey
Staff Reporter
The Student Government Association has introduced a new leadership program available to all campus organizations. It is targeted at leaders of all campus groups, everything from fraternities/sororities to honor societies to clubs.
The program utilizes a series of seminars by a professional leadership development speaker. The seminars are available on CD-ROM through the SGA.
But the program does not just place a bunch of discs in front of student leaders and leave them to learn on their own. The SGA has meticulously categorized the seminars and developed guidelines to help leaders determine what seminars are best for themselves and their organizations.
Interested leaders can explore the leadership program on the student intranet. There, they will be asked to complete a survey regarding their group and their position in it. From there, the leaders will be categorized into one of three levels.
Level 1 is for “new members of the campus community taking on a leadership role or actively engaging in an organization.” Level 2 is designed for “experienced members of an organization that holds a current leadership role and would like to expand on their abilities.” Level 3 is for “senior members of an organization concerned with succession planning and transitioning of the organization moving forward,” said SGA President, senior Ben Cowman.
After this, participants will identify areas in which they feel their group needs improvement. These areas are: community, team cohesion, setting the group standard, goals & strategic planning, resolving conflict & consensus building, and succession planning & transition. Based on these two areas of identification, the SGA recommends various seminars.
In the final section of the survey, the SGA breaks down its recommendations even more, recommending specific seminars for such groups as faith-based organizations, athletic groups, honor societies, and so forth.
Once group members have completed this survey, they may choose which seminars they think will be most helpful. Groups may check out up to two seminars at once, due 48 hours after check-out from the Office of Student Affairs.
Since the seminars are on CD-ROM and not DVD, they cannot be shown on a traditional DVD player. However, Decker Auditorium, as well as several other rooms in Hill Hall and Hoover Library are equipped to show the seminars.
Cowman said he was pleased to be able to offer this leadership program to the entire campus community. Last year, he said, the SGA attended a leadership conference off-campus, but could only take four people, and the cost was quite high.
Through the new program, everyone on campus has the ability to participate and the seminars can be shown to entire groups of people, all while never having to leave campus or pay a dime.
The seminars cover a tremendous range of material and can offer something to almost every organization on campus. Here are the titles of just a few seminars: “Better Meetings through Parliamentary Procedure,” “Developing & Strengthening an Unstoppable Team,” and “Energizing Membership: Creating Active Members.”
No matter what your organization does, the SGA’s seminars can help strengthen your organization. So check them out!
